Traditionally, video games have mostly been played on hardware that is local to the video game user. Users usually go visit a video game arcade to play arcade video games, and home video game users typically purchase a home video game system such as the Nintendo Gamecube System or a home computer to play video games at home. To play a game at home, the user usually selects a video game on a optical disk or other storage device (or in the case of a personal computer or other system, he or she may download the game from the Internet or other network) and controls the local hardware to begin executing the game. The game is displayed on the user's home television set or computer display.
There may be situations in which it is desirable to distribute video game play to remote users in more controlled settings.
For example, as the opportunity for leisure family travel has increased throughout the general population, the travel industry has adapted by providing travel facilities with many of the comforts of home. Many hotels now have amenities for younger travelers to make a family's stay more pleasant and convenient. Similarly, airlines now routinely show movies, videos and other multi media during flights to entertain younger passengers and help them pass the time. Cruise lines generally attempt to provide luxury accommodations including all of the comforts of home for travelers of all ages.
Playing video games can often be an excellent way to pass the time while waiting to travel or during travel. An airplane or train ride may seem to pass more quickly if one is able to spend the time playing a challenging, fun interactive video game. Similarly, the idea of taking young children to a hotel or on a cruise ship may be daunting unless one has a way to entertain the children and keep them from becoming bored. The ability to play video games in hotel rooms and cruise ship cabins is a significant benefit to parents and other caregivers who wish to entertain children and keep them busy and occupied.
To meet these needs, systems were developed in the past for distributing video game play among a number of users in a hotel, train, airplane, cruise ship or other context. It has been possible in the past for an airline passenger to play video games on a so-called “seat back controller”—basically a miniature personal computer installed within the back of the airplane seat in front of you. Also, it has long been possible through a television distribution system commercialized by Lodgenet to play Nintendo video games in a hotel room using a standard television set and hand held controllers. Briefly, this prior art television distribution system can distribute video game play audio and video to individual hotel rooms on demand. A “back channel” used to request movies and other services on demand is also used to send interactive video game input commands such as joystick control (e.g., switch closure) data from hotel rooms to a centralized video game playing server. This centralized video server—which in one commercial implementation comprises an array of video game players having their video/audio outputs directed to different television channels within the television distribution system—is shared to provide video game play for a plurality of users in different hotel rooms simultaneously.
Centralizing the video game playing hardware and sharing it among multiple remote users saves costs and solves other problems as well. For example, sharing centralized hardware among many hotel guests makes it possible to eliminate the expense of placing a video game player in each room where it might be stolen or damaged. Generally, a relatively small percentage of the total number of guests of a hotel will wish to play video games at any given time. A limited number of video game hardware units at a central location within the hotel can be used to provide video game playing services to the entire hotel.
Using such a system to play a video game, a user in a hotel room operates the television set remote control to request video game play. Assuming a video game unit at the central location is available for use, a data connection is established between the hand-held remote controller in the hotel room and the control inputs of an assigned available video game player at the central location. The assigned video game player output is routed to the particular hotel room's television set using conventional television signal distribution techniques (e.g., over a particular television channel assigned for that particular video game playing session). A computer used to establish these connections may also be responsible for billing the room's occupant based for example on the amount of time of video game play, number or identify of games played, etc. The user may request different games by operating his television remote control which causes the computer to load the selected game into the assigned video game player. For additional information about such arrangements, see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,154,186; 6,147,696; 6,147,663; 6,047,127; 5,959,596; 5,923,306; 5,581,270; and US Patent Publication No. 20020054016.
While the technology described above has been successful in allowing airline and train passengers, hotel room guests and the like to play video games, further improvements are possible and desirable.
One area of desired improvement relates to the secure maintenance of updated remote video game libraries to be shared among hotel room guests, airline passengers, etc. As with most forms of entertainment, it is the quality and interest factor of video games that make people want to play them. A hotel operator who has made a substantial investment to provide video game play from hotel rooms may not see a significant return on his or her investment if guests can play only a limited selection of games. On the other hand, if the latest, most exciting video games are being offered (e.g., including newer games that guests have not yet purchased at home), then many more people will want to play.
With the recent increases in the speed and bandwidth of digital connections, it is now possible to electronically download video games and other digital content via satellite or other high speed networks. For example, “feeds” can be used to remotely update video game libraries with the latest video games. Unfortunately, however, such electronic downloading raises the risk of piracy of the content. Hackers eavesdropping on satellite feeds may be able to receive the video game content and disseminate it without authorization. Intruders having access to the hotel's centralized distribution system (e.g., hotel guests, clerks, cleaning staff, etc.) similarly may be able to purloin content by copying the downloaded or otherwise resident video game software from the centralized facility onto portable storage media that they might then take home with them—or the central facilities' mass storage devices may themselves be stolen. These significant security risks present a challenge to those trying to maintain shared video game electronic libraries at a number of insecure remote locations.
Another challenge relates to cost, reliability and size of the centralized video game distribution system. In a successful deployment of remote video game distribution services, there will be many such systems installed in a variety of locations far apart from one another. For example, a major hotel chain adopting video game playing as part of its guest offerings may naturally lead to installing video game distribution systems at a number of hotels all over the country or the world. Once the system is deployed, it is highly desirable for it to operate as reliably and trouble-free as possible without the need for service or maintenance cells. Breakdowns will cause interruption in service, drastically decreasing the desirability and usage of the system. The need to send a service technician out to various distant locations where systems are installed should be reduced as much as possible. Hotels and other locations such as cruise ships, airplanes and trains also may not have much space available for installing a video game distribution system. Therefore, a certain degree of compactness would be desirable.
The present invention solves these and other problems and concerns by providing a reliable secure video game or other entertainment content distribution system.
In accordance with one aspect of a presently preferred illustrative example embodiment, video game software or other entertainment content is distributed via electronic download in multi-level encrypted form. The content is encrypted with a first encryption layer, and is subsequently encrypted with a second encryption layer. The second encryption layer is used to protect the content during electronic download. Once the content has been successfully downloaded, it is decrypted to remove the second encryption layer—leaving a first encryption layer intact for protecting the video game during storage on mass storage devices at the remote distribution location.
Using this technique, the video game content remains encrypted even after arrival and storage to protect it against the risk of an attacker who has access to the remote storage device(s). A higher security level is provided by additional encryption level(s) during electronic download to protect against the risk of eavesdroppers listening in on a satellite or other public communications link. Such secure electronic distribution over a network minimizes the need to transfer physical storage media (e.g., mailing or otherwise transporting hard drives, optical disks, etc.) while providing automatic remote video game library updating and maintenance.
In accordance with another exemplary illustrative aspect of the presently preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention, a plurality of video game players share a video game library stored on a shared mass storage device. A multiplexer multiplexes data read from the mass storage device to provide output streams to multiple video game playing units consuming video game instructions. A secure bus communicates video game instructions from the shared mass storage device to each of the plurality of video game playing units. In one exemplary illustrative embodiment, the multiplexing circuitry resides on a printed circuit board mounted on a modular plug-in mass storage device to provide a modular system allowing field replacement by untrained individuals.